
REPORT 



OF THE 



Illinois 
Centennial Commission 




TO THE 



rorty-ninth General Assembly 



5^1 






REPORT 



OF THE 



Illinois 
Centennial Commission 



TO THE 



Forty-ninth General Assembly 



ScHNErr & Barnes, State Printers 

Springfield, III. 

1915 



D. of D, 
APR 4 1916 



To the Members of the Senate and House of R^epresentatives, Forty- 
ninth General Assembly, State of Illinois. 

Gentlemen : The Illinois Centennial Commission was created in 
accordance with the provisions of a joint resolution a(lo])ted by the 
Forty-eighth General Assembly. The purpose of the commission, as 
set forth in the resolution creating it, is to make preparation for the 
proper observance of the one hundredth anniversary of the admission 
of Illinois into the Union. 

That this centennial anniversary should be fittingly commemorated 
is recognized by every patriotic citizen of the State. Ihe occasion 
offers a most excellent o])]>ortunity to show the wonderful development 
that has been made in dur commonwealth during its hundred years oi 
progress. 

The commission as originally constituted consisted of the following 
members : 

State Senators : Campbell S. Hearn, Logan Hay, Kent E. Keller, 
Hugh S. Magill, Jr., Plenry W. Johnson. 

Members of the House of Representatives: John S. Burns, John 
Huston, C. C. Pervier, J. F. Morris, George B. Baker. 

President E. J. James, Prof. E. B. Greene, Prof. J. W. Garner of 
the University of Illinois, and, 

Dr. Otto L.' Schmidt and Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber of the Illinois 
State Historical Society. 

The commission first met on July 23, 1913, and organized by the 
election of Senator Campbell S. Hearn as president, and Mrs. Jessie 
Palmer Weber as secretary. 

Senator Campbell S. Hearn of the Thirty-sixth Senatorial District, 
who introduced into the Forty-eighth General Assembly the resolution 
for the creation of the commission, died at his home in Quincy, 111., 
August 28, 1914. This commission is indebted to Senator Hearn not 
only for the legislation under which it was organized, but for much 
valuable advice and counsel. He gave to it unselfish labor and devotion, 
and the name of Campbell S. Hearn will be forever connected with 
whatever this commission accomplishes. He would ask no greater 
reward or memorial than that he be remembered in connection with the 
work to which he gave so much thought and labor. 

When, by reason of sickness, Senator Hearn was unable to attend 
the meetings. Honorable Hugh S. Magill, Jr., was elected president 
pro tempore, and on December 3, 19.14, was elected president of the 
commission. 



GENERAL PLANS FOR THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

After a very careful consideration of the whole subject by the 
commission, it was decided that the celebration should be planned under 
the following heads : 

First- — State Wide Celebration. , 

Second — Celebration at State Capitol. 

Third — Centennia-1 Memorial Building. 

Fourth — Centennial Memorial Publications. 

Fifth — Historical Statues and Markings. 

It was also determined that there should be a Committee on Pub- 
licity. Special committees for each of these departments of the work 
were organized as follows : 

(1) Committee on State Wide Celebrations — 

Senator Kent E. Keller, Chairman ; members. Prof. Garner, 
Senator Johnson, Representatives Burns, Huston and 
Pervier, and Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber. 

(2) Committee on Celebration at State Capitol — 

Senator Hugh S. Magill, Jr., Chairman. 

Chairman for Dedicatory Progress- — President E. J. James. 

Chairman for Historical Pageant — Mrs. Jessie Palmer 

Weber. 
Chairman for Centennial Exposition — Senator Logan Hay. 

(a) Agriculture — Representative Pervier. 

(b) Livestock — Representative Huston. 

(c) Mining — Representative Morris. 

(d) Manufacturers — Representative Baker. 

(e) Transportation — Senator Johnson. 

(f) Education — State Superintendent Blair. 

(g) Arts and Sciences — Professor Garner. 

(h) Historical Relics — Mrs. Jessie Palmer W^eber. 

(3) Committee on Centennial Memorial Building — 

Senator Logan Hay, Chairman ; members. Senator Keller 
and Representatives Burns, Baker and Morris. 

(4) Committee on Centennial Memorial Publications — 

Dr. O. L. Schmidt, Chairman ; members. Representative 
Baker, President James, and Professors Greene and 
Garner. 

(5) Committee on Statues and Historical Markings — 

Professor Evarts B. Greene, Chairman; members. Senators 
Magill and Johnson, Representative Huston and Dr. 
Schmidt. 
(H) Committee on Publicity — 

Representative John S. Burns, Chairman ; members. State 
Superintendent Blair, Senators Magill and Keller, Repre- 
sentative Morris and Dr. O. L. Schmidt. 

THE CELEBRATION THROUGHOUT THE STATE. 

The Committee on the State W'ide Celebrations, of which Senator 
Kent E. Keller is chairman, has been acti\-ely at work. It has. sent out 
letters to all county superintendents of schools for the purpose of 
obtaining a list of all the teachers of the State in the hope of securing 



their cooperation in the work of the commission. It has attempted to 
interest the press, the clergy and the schools, and has written and sent 
out many hundreds of personal letters to individuals. It has asked 
c:dvice and suggestions from all classes of citizens, as well as coopera- 
tion from them in the work of the commission. The committee believes 
that one of the best methods of arousing and sustaining interest in the 
Centennial Celebration is by the formation of associations in each 
county in the State, and in larger centers to be called Centennial Asso- 
ciations. This has been done in several localities with good results, and 
the plan is to be elaborated and extended. It is hoped that each county, 
city, town and village, church and school in the State will have its own 
centennial celebration, the whole to culminate in the great celebration, 
exposition and historical pageant at Springfield, and the Committee on 
the State Wide Celebration is doing its best to encourage and stimulate 
interest in and plans of this nature. Localities are being urged to cele- 
brate local historical events and anniversaries and to procure and 
preserve in permanent form the recollections and reminiscences of its 
older men and women. 

THE GREAT CELEBRATION AT SPRINGFIELD. 

The details of the celebration at the State Capitol have not all 
been worked out, but it is intended to make this feature of the centen- 
nial of great historical importance. It is planned to have a Centennial 
Exposition displaying the agriculural and manufacturing progress of 
the State, together with its varied resources ; also an Historical Pageant, 
setting forth graphically and with artistic beauty the wonderful develop- 
ment that has been attained in a hundred years of progress. President 
Edmund J. James of the University of Illinois, Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Dedicatory Program at Springfield, has formulated a tentative 
plan which, when worked out, will furnish one of the principal features 
of the centennial observance. .It is hoped that this feature can be made 
of world wide interest and that other states and nations will participate 
in it. 

CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL BUILDING. 
The General Assembly has already taken cognizance of the need 
of additional room at the State Capitol and a commission has been 
appointed to take the preliminary steps looking to the erection of an 
Educational Building. The Centennial Commission has felt that this 
building might also serve the purpose of being a Centennial Memorial, 
commemorating in permanent form the one hundredth anniversary of 
Illinois' statehood. Such a building could contain all the features that 
have been planned for it from the standpoint of the State's needs, and 
also be a suitable memorial, providing for the historical collection of 
the State, its archives and other collateral interests. 

CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL PUBLICATIONS. 

The Committee on Centennial Memorial Publications, of which Dr. 
O. L. Schmidt is chairman, has been up to this time the most active 
of the committees of the commission, and has with the advice and con- 
sent of the Governor and the entire commission, already made plans 
for the compiling and editing of a comprehensive centennial memorial 



history of Illinois, to consist of six volumes, to be written or compiled 
by competent, trained historical writers, the first volume a separate 
publication to be entitled, "Illinois in 1818." This volume is to be 
edited by Dr. Solon J. Buck and will be the first published. It will 
embrace an account of social, economic and political conditions at the 
close of the territorial period; of the organization of the State and its 
admission into the Union. 

The other live volumes are to be a series of volumes relating to the 
different periods of the State's history. This series will be under the 
general editorship of Prof. C. W. Alvord of the University of Illinois, 
whose work on the Illinois State Historical Collections has gained for 
him a reputation second to none. Several other authors or editors 
have been secured to edit \olumes for which their ability and experience 
has made them peculiarly fitted. The several volumes have the follow- 
ing titles : 

Volume I. Province and Territory, 1673-1818. 

Volume II. The Frontier State, 1818-1848. 

Volume III. The Era of Transition, 1848-1878. 

Volume IV. The Industrial State, 1870-1893. 

Volume V. The Modern Commonwealth, 1893-1918. 

These volumes it is expected will be written in a narrative style 
which will be attractive to the general reader, but there will be foot 
notes and bibliographical apparatus which will make them valuable for 
the use of scholars. 

The cost of the publication of the Centennial Memorial Historical 
Series has been estimated to be thirty-four thousand dollars ($34,000), 
and the commission will ask of this General Assembly (the Forty- 
ninth) one-half of this sum, seventeen thousand dollars ($17,000) and 
the Fiftieth General Assembly will be asked to make the necessary 
appropriation of seventeen thousand dollars ($17,000) to complete the 
work. 

HISTORICAL STATUES AND MARKINGS. 
' In the opinion of the Committee on Historical Statues and Mark- 
ings, in which the commission concurs, it is not thought desirable to 
provide for a large number of statues or monuments at this time. To 
some extent it may be possible for particular counties or cities to 
recognize in the centennial year men who have been especially associ- 
ated with such localities. The commission desires, however, to give its 
cordial endorsement and support to the plans inaugurated by the Forty- 
eighth General Assembly, and now being carried on by the State Art 
Commission for the erection of statues in commemoration of Lincoln 
and Douglas on the Capitol grounds. We would further suggest the 
desirability of making preparations at this time for a monument or 
tablet especially recognizing the services of Nathaniel Pope, territorial 
delegate in Congress at the time of the admission of Illinois to the 
Union, to whom the chief credit for the passage of the enabling act in 
its final form is due. 

WORK OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLICITY. 
The Committee on Publicity, of which Hon. John S. Burns is 
chairman, is one of the most important committees of the commission 



and has worked untiringly to brino^ before the people of the State the 
fact that the centennial is approaching and that it must be celebrated in 
a manner befitting the occasion and the State of Illinois. The press 
of this and other states has accepted with great and generous interest 
the information furnished by this committee and has generally recom- 
mended and advanced editorially and locally the plans of the commis- 
sion, especially with regard to the proposed Centennial Memorial 
Building and the Centennial Historical Publications. 

NECESSITY FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION. 

In 1818 Illinois was a frontier territory, but its geographical posi- 
tion, its soil, its water-course and its rapidly growing population des- 
tined it to become a very important factor in the life of the Union. In 
its tremendous development during its 100 years of statehood Illinois 
has more than justified the hopes and prophecies of its statesmen and 
citizens. Ohio was the first of the states of the old northwest territory 
to complete its first century of statehood. It failed to observe its cen- 
tennial in an adequate way. This has been greatly regretted by many 
of its citizens. Indiana will next year, 1916, observe its centennial, and 
efforts are being made to make the celebration a notable one, but it now 
ai^pears that it will be unable to carry out the splendid plans which 
have been made for a great celebration becatise her citizens did not 
begin the movement in time. Illinois should take warning from the 
mistakes of her sister states and lea\'e nothing undone to insure a com- 
plete and well planned celebration of its centennial in 1918. 

The resolution creating this commission carried with it an appro- 
])riation of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for preliminary work for 
the first two years. It is believed that this amount has been wisely and 
economically expended, and the commission is asking the present 
General Assembly to appropriate a like sum at least for its work during 
the next biennial period. 

Respectfully submitted, 

THE ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION. 

Hugh S. Magill, 'Jr., 

President. 
Jessie Palmer Weber, 

Secretary. 
John S. Burns, 
Logan Hay, 
John Huston, 
George B. Baker, 
Clayton C. Pervier, 
Otto L. Schmidt, 
Henry W. Johnson, 
James F. Morris, 
Kent E. Keller, 
Edmund J. James, 
EvARTs B. Greene, 
James W. Garner, 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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